What's This, Then?

Posted on Thu Apr 2nd, 2020 @ 10:22pm by Major Kachiko Bayushi & Lieutenant Minna Chang
Edited on on Wed Apr 8th, 2020 @ 10:49pm

1,064 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: E1 Only The Beginning
Timeline: MD08 || 1220

Kachiko sighed as she turned over in the aft bunk, having trouble sleeping again. The nightmares were back, often leading to the small Marine awaking terrified, her heart racing. Which had since lead to her minds unwillingness to let her fall asleep in the first place.

“Mom!” came Reiko's voice from the cockpit. Kachiko rose, exhausted, making her way forward. Slipping through the entrance, she looked down at her seated daughter, “What is it, Reiko-chan?”

“I'm… uh, we're not where we're supposed to be, Mom,” Reiko gestured at the display overlay on the forward viewport. That was the moment when the overlay noted something else was very close by, a large magnetic anomaly.

Reiko in the co-pilots seat, Kachiko slid into the pilots seat, instructing the computer to put the magnetic anomaly on the viewer. Reorienting the camera view in the direction of the nearby magnetic field displayed what appeared to be a… Galaxy class starship?

“What the hell?” Kachiko muttered, before twisting the runabout towards the ship, whose Warp nacelles were not lit up like they should be. Speaking to the computer, “Magnify, three by.”

The camera view closed in and Kachiko’s fingers reoriented it towards the Saucer section. There on the hull, she read aloud, “En See See Seventy-One Eight Twenty. USS Magellan.”

“Well, Reiko, we found where we need to be, except we are still in the wrong place,” Kachiko reached over and squeezed the girls arm gently. Then she touched the panel in front of her, “Private vessel SS Ishikari to USS Magellan.”

Minna was not a communications officer, or helm for that matter, but with both of those departments currently hard at work on repairs and with shields and weapons both now operational, Minna was currently the senior officer on the bridge. She moved over to the empty center chair and activated the viewer as she received the hail. She was rather surprised to see someone on the other end even shorter, though slightly heavier than she was.

"This is Lieutenant Minna Chang of the USS Magellan, go ahead."

"Major Bayushi, Lieutenant. I was supposed to meet you and come aboard about sixty light years from here, but something moved us here. Transmitting my orders on a secure channel, permission to come aboard?" It was at about this time that Reiko returned to the cockpit from the refresher, smiling at Minna over the viewer.

"Proceed to the shuttle bay" Minna said after taking a moment to review the orders. "I'll meet you there."

Minna then turned to the ensign working at the science station. "You have the bridge, ensign, if anything happens not worthy of bothering the captain for, call me."

"Aye ma'am" the young ensign replied as Minna headed to the turbo lift.

She made short time to the shuttle bay and didn't particularly care about the appearance she presented. She still had a pretty long rip down her left shoulder and back with a decent blood stain to math from crawling into a shield modulation housing, and then the modern phaser rifle slung over her shoulder and the ancient 22nd century Mk. I Phase Pistol clipped to her belt. Most incongruous of all, however, was the external metal brace that extended from her left angle to just below the hip, with a large and very rigid hinge at the knee and uncomfortable-looking leather straps securing the whole thing at three points along her calf and three more going up her thigh.

She stepped into the shuttle bay just as the runabout was landing, and not bothering to conceal her limp she just approached with long, purposeful if unbalanced strides until she was at the base of the still descending passenger ramp.

The black hulled Danube-class runabout slowly entered Shuttlebay 2 before gently settling to the deck with the forward viewport looking right at the Lieutenant. A minute later, a very short and slender woman with long white hair stepped down from the starboard side hatch, wearing an all-black uniform (even the communicator and Type-II phaser were blacked out). A standard compression rifle slung over her right shoulder.

She turned towards and approached the Lieutenant, stopping as curiously blue eyes looked up at the other woman, "Major Bayushi Kachiko, Starfleet Marines, reporting aboard as ordered!"

Minna noticed the Japanese features and name, but the hair and eye color didn't match. Regardless, when she spoke next, Minna did so in flawless, unaccented Japanese, which unlike Standard or English which she learned as an adult, was a language she spoke since childhood. That, and the Japanese language was grammatically very similar to her native Korean, only far easier to pronounce.

"Minna Chang, chief of security. I assume you've got a padd with some orders?"

Kachiko nodded with a small smile, "I do, Miss Chang." The other hand came up from her side, holding a PADD, offering it to the woman. "Your intonation, Korean?"

“Good ear” Minna replied as she took the padd and checked the orders. She then pulled out her own, issued the transfer and entered in the woman’s security codes. She then took the liberty of assigning her quarters, a larger family unit as she noted the child both on the orders and standing nearby smiling.

“Its not normally my job, but I assigned your quarters. Figured with a child you’d want to settle in. We’ve hit some sort of..., I have no idea what the hell it is” Minna continued speaking in Japanese. “I’ve got weapons and shields back online, but operations is still working on a number of damaged systems.”

"Well, regarding these things,"Kachiko sighed."We'll need to talk in your office when you have a chance."

Then she gestured to the preteen girl, "This is my daughter, Reiko. And if you require assistance with any tactical systems, I started my career as a Tactical Systems Specialist. So long ago."

"Thanks for the offer, but I think your marines probably need you more than I do. I'd suggest your check in with the Captain and XO before anything else."

"Well, obviously," Kachiko chuckled shortly. "It's a pleasure meeting you, Miss Chang."

"Likewise" Minna replied. "If you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to the bridge."

"Of course, hon," Kachiko reached back and took Reiko's hand, following the Lieutenant into the gangway but turned the opposite direction for a different turbolift.

 

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